


Joyous

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [100]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Female Friendship, Fix-It, Flirting, Gen, Holidays, Party, Vampire Family, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 20:04:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4679621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The baby vamps' semi-pagan Christmas party commences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Joyous

**Author's Note:**

> Part two, "Peppermint Candy."
> 
>  **Original Characters** : seen Vanessa Quinones, Isi Hill, Antoine Henriques, Mateo Cheng, Evelyn Winter, Noël Beringer, Amarie Cambridge, Mallory Cambridge.

The doorbell rings and Willa jumps up.  “You want me to get it?” she asks, fluffing her curls out in case.

“Would you?” Jessica asks apologetically.  She’s still putting her own finishing touches on (she’s changed her mind about what she’s wearing three times).

“’Course,” Willa chirps, dashing out the door and down the stairs.

She and Jessica have been holed up at the Compton house for three nights running, first cleaning the place up morn e, then packing more of Bill’s pretentious décor up for eBay and Etsy buyers, then festooning the place with very festive decorations: garlands around the banisters mistletoe hanging from the light fixture, and impossibly tall tree in the corner of the parlor cut down by Tara and decorated mostly with the collection of Barbie ornaments that, after some coaxing, Pam admitted to having.  They’ve had help (mostly Pam and Tara and Noël, swinging by when they finish up at the still-renovating bar) but it’s really been their project.

“Typical,” Pam keeps declaring, “the babies are the ones makin’ a fuss outta Christmas.”  (It may be pagan Christmas, but it’s more that than anything else.)

“Yeah,” Willa keeps retorting.  “I think we all deserve it.”

Now, the night of, the house is all spic and span and they personally are the slightest bit punchy, giddy with hostess energy.  So Willa’s grin is the slightest bit manic when she opens the door.

It’s Sookie and Jason, which makes sense since they’re just across the way.

“Hey!” Willa exclaims.

“We brought people snacks,” Jason declares, holding up two paper bags full, almost certainly, of chips and beer.  “We weren’t sure how much you guys were gonna take care of that.”

“Thanks,” Willa says.  “There’s a table, we’ve got a little out, I’ll show you.  C’mon in!  I guess, ah, I guess you don’t need the tour.”  She laughs nervously.

“Don’t worry,” Sookie says kindly.  “It’s not like it’s the house’s fault.”

“Yeah,” Willa says.  “Thanks, or something.  Have you heard from Sam and Luna?”  Given the nature of Sam’s job, his attendance has been the most conditional.

“He’s gonna hand it over to Arlene by nine-thirty, then he and Luna and Lafayette are all gonna swing by,” Sookie explains.

“Cool,” Willa says.

“Is Jess still upstairs gettin’ ready?” Jason asks.

Willa nods.  “But she’s gonna be glad to see you,” she offers.  “When she gets down here.  Which, I dunno, it oughta be soon.”  Before she can continue, the doorbell rings, enough times that it’s clear who’s there.

“You go get,” Sookie says when she sees Willa dithering.  “We’ll get our stuff put where it needs to be.”

They set about doing that and Willa skips to the door.  “Hey!” she chirps, bracing herself for the barrage of hugs the Bellefleur girls have taken to greeting with lately.

“Merry Christmas!” Charlaine shouts, grinning.  “Oh my gosh the house is so plain on the outside but it’s so done up in here!  Holy crap it’s cute.”

“She means happy holidays,” Danika corrects.

Willa shrugs pleasantly.  “Nobody actually cares,” she says.  “I mean, I guess like, Sookie probably still does religion, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but all our family pretty much owns that all we really believe in is gifts are fun to give and parties are fun to have and let’s not be shitheads.”

“Sounds like a solid philosophy,” Braelyn purrs, leaning in to kiss her girlfriend’s cheek.

 

* * *

 

 

 _Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer_ is ironically or not-ironically playing on the big screen TV, courtesy of Sookie (“there’s babies here, it’s practically my job to make sure they see it!”) and the already-arrived guests are mingling when Eric and Nora arrive.  Or it’s almost certainly them, given the businesslike knocking and also the fact that everyone else has showed up already.

Willa has mostly been doing door duty and Jessica has been perched on the sofa entertaining, but a visual sweep of the room limits the possible new arrivals, so Jessica is on her feet immediately, grinning.

“Someone’s horny,” Pam, sprawled out in an armchair, comments.

“Think you mixed your words up there,” Tara, sprawled out in Pam’s lap, drawls.

“Horny’s just excited magnified,” Pam shrugs.

Amber, who’s currently on one of the sofas leaning against the newest chancellor, a three-hundred-something-year-old named Mateo Cheng, and laying her feet across Vanessa’s lap (the latter is a new development, but not one anyone – even Nicole, sitting next to them nursing a beer – is too alarmed about given their standards of normal), raises her tumbler of A- in a toast.

Jessica swings the door open with a coy smile, wholly unsurprised by her girlfriend and boyfriend’s appearances.  Nora’s dress is black and shapeless with cutouts in the shoulders like she has a thing for and her only concession to the season is a red ribbon in her hair; Eric is in slacks and a sweater with a candy cane/holly/jingle bell brooch pinned to his chest.

“Good evening,” he croons, jazz singer-smooth.

“Pardon our lateness,” she hums, smirking in a way that makes Jessica feel like she’s in for… something, though she’s not sure what, later tonight.

“Make it up with a kiss,” Jessica suggests, pulling the both of them in by the hands.  “We’re gonna be under the mistletoe an’ all.”

They both come along, Eric offering a sarcastically acquiescent “ _Your Highness_ ,” Nora giggling and kicking off her shoes despite the way it exaggerates her shortness (she’s not even that short, she’s 5’6”, it’s just that both of her lovers are notably tall; Jessica comes up as tall as Eric with her own shoes on).

They all move in at the same time for that suggested kiss resulting a messy, noisy, thoroughly _silly_ bumping-together of mouths.  It’s not as if they can’t all kiss at once, but it’s better when planned, not when stumbled into, and after a moment Jessica bursts out laughing.  “One at a time,” she says, leaving one hand holding Nora’s while she moves to kiss Eric.

This, of course, makes Nora pout, complete with audible noise of distaste, so Eric takes her other hand in an attempt to make her feel involved.  They stay joined like this while Jessica bends down to kiss Nora, but this kiss deepens, Jessica tipping Nora backward as Nora stands on her tiptoes, and Eric politely backs out of the way, smirking.

Through the door into the parlor he catches Sookie’s eye (she’s currently sitting on the ottoman letting Adilyn braid her hair) and just shrugs.  “Holiday spirit,” he mouths.


End file.
